Somewhere I Belong
by Phantom Rosabelle
Summary: Ashley has some trouble adjusting to life on KO35. Oneshot fic written for Arwennicole. Andros/Ashley.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Power Rangers

**Author's Notes:** One, I think I paid far too much attention to Andros than was healthy for a nine-year-old. Two, I'm not sure how clear I make this in the story, so to hopefully avoid confusion: Andros goes back to Earth with the other Ranges after CtD and stays there for a year before moving back to KO-35 with Ashley, Zhane, and Karone. This picks up a few weeks after that. Three, this is a birthday fic for **Arwennicole** who turns eighteen today.

**Somewhere I Belong**

There were no credit cards on KO-35. Ashley blinked, struck by the realization that that was a rather odd thought when the object in her hand was her driver's license. Those they did have, or some variation thereof. She wasn't quite sure what they called it, but she was mostly sure that the vehicle of choice on this world was a hovercar. So maybe it was a driver's license after all.

She frowned down at the small piece of plastic, her eyes scanning the information she had long ago memorized. Height and weight and gender, address of residence. Her name.

Ashley Hammond.

There were no last names on KO-35, either. With so few people before the war and less after, there was no need for a second name. Now that she was relocating herself permanently to KO-35, she wouldn't be Ashley Hammond anymore. She would be just Ashley now, and that bothered her more than it probably should.

The steps creaked as someone walked up them, and Ashley straightened up to look over her shoulder. Andros smiled warmly as he met her eyes, absently tucking stray wisps of hair behind his ears as he joined her at the railing.

"What are you doing out here?" he wanted to know. "You didn't have to wait for me."

"I wanted to," she said softly, her eyes straying across the near empty streets. "It's so quiet here."

"Not like Earth."

"No," she agreed, shaking her head. "Not like Earth at all."

"Do you... wish that it was?" he asked, his voice quiet and careful. He edged closer to her, his fingertips brushing lightly against her arm in another of the tentative caresses she had come to associate with him; those soft touches that were hardly there yet somehow managed to electrify her.

"No," she said firmly, reaching behind her to catch his fingers in her own, his palm warm as she held it against hers. "Never."

He didn't speak, but the smile on his face was clear as day when she snuck another glance at him. Andros smiled more and more often now, and it wasn't something that Ashley thought she could ever have enough of. Not with the way his whole face could light up in joy, the way the right corner of his mouth would sometimes lift a little higher into a grin that was just so _Andros_ it made her want to fling her arms around him and never let him go.

"What?" he asked curiously, and she realized with a jolt that she was staring at him. _Again._

"Nothing," she murmured, lowering her eyes. "How are your parents?"

"They've moved back in," he said, brightening again. "Karone's staying awhile longer... I wanted to give them some time alone."

"You know they want to see you too," she told him quietly, laying her other hand on his, pressing his palm between her own. "Just as much as you want to see them."

"They haven't seen her for thirteen years, Ash." Sadness tinged his features, his smile disappearing as he pressed his lips into a thin line. "It's enough that they've forgiven me. For... everything."

Ashley dropped his hand then, only to gather him into her arms and hold him tight. She didn't bother to tell him that his parents had never for a moment held him responsible for either Karone's kidnapping all those years ago or Astronema's accidental death; she knew that they already had. It had just been easier to forgive him than to keep insisting that there was nothing to forgive.

He seemed startled for a moment at the fierceness of her embrace. She felt him tense for an instant before he relaxed, slowly wrapping both of his arms around her. He pulled her flush against his chest and she tilted her head against his to fit better up against him.

"What's in your hand?" he asked curiously.

"What?" Snapping out of thoughts of how nice his breath felt on her skin, Ashley lifted her head off of his shoulder. "Oh... it's nothing," she said, unwinding one arm from around his waist to show him. "This was my driver's license back--back on Earth."

She caught herself before she said it, but when he met her eye she knew that she hadn't fooled him. "Back home," he corrected her calmly, and she looked down.

"Yeah," she muttered.

Andros touched her arm then, gently, waiting until she turned to look at him before he spoke. "Earth will always be your home, Ash," he said softly. "That doesn't have to change."

"But it does," she insisted. "You were willing to give up your home for me, and I don't want you to think that I wouldn't do the same for you."

"Ashley." He took both her hands in his, squeezing her fingers between his own. "Ash, I'm not expecting that you'll get used to KO-35 overnight. I know what you left behind on Earth and it... it means everything to me that you did."

"You're worth it," she said fiercely, closing her eyes when he hugged her. Happy tears pressed against her eyelids as she rested her chin on his shoulder, warm inside. Andros wouldn't say something like that if he didn't mean it with all his heart, and she knew without a doubt that she was exactly where she needed to be.

"I'm not unhappy here," Ashley said. "Don't ever think that I'm not. It's just..."

"Different?" he suggested, and she nodded her head.

"Very. But I--I like it here."

"I'm glad," he said quietly, giving her one final squeeze before he drew away. "Can I keep this?"

She frowned at him for a moment, not sure what he was talking about until he pulled her drivers license out of her hand. "If you want to," she said slowly, not sure why he would.

But he seemed to, pocketing it and smiling. "Are you going to stay out here?"

"Not if you're going in." She took the hand he offered as he led her indoors, only as the door shut behind her realizing how chilly it had been on the porch.

"Hungry?"

"Not really," she answered. "You eat if you want."

"Later. I, um..." Andros cleared his throat nervously. "I have something for you."

"You do?" Ashley felt herself break into a smile when he nodded, resisting the temptation to throw herself into his arms.

"Come sit down," he said, tilting his head towards the couch. "I'll go get it."

She'd made herself comfortable by the time he reappeared, a small box clutched in his hands. He sat down next to her before he handed her the box, tucking his hair behind his ear. She'd only recently noticed how often he did that, but she adored the way he looked with his hair down. Not that he looked any less gorgeous with it pulled back, or in a ponytail, and she wouldn't mind seeing him with his hair braided again, either.

"Well... I hope you like it," he said, and set the box gently into her open palm.

Ashley beamed at him before slowly lifting the lid, her mouth opening slightly in surprise as she saw the earrings inside nestled against a snow-white velvet background. She didn't recognize the brilliant red gem as anything she would have seen back on Earth, but she decided she liked it as she ran a finger over one earring. It sparkled faintly in the light, just enough to be catchy without too showy.

"They're beautiful," she breathed, lifting her eyes towards his. "Thank you."

"Happy birthday, Ash," he said softly, and her smile faded.

"It's not..." She stopped, a frown forming. "Is it?"

"I thought it was..." Andros's voice trailed off as he watched her uncertainly. "I checked the Terran calendars."

"Wait..." She closed her eyes for a moment in a struggle to reconcile the still unfamiliar pattern of days here on KO-35 to Earth's solar calendar that she hadn't quite been able to let go of. "It would be, wouldn't it."

"Ash?" Concern for her filled his face as he took one of her hands in his, pressing a warm kiss to her fingers. "What is it?"

"Nothing," she sighed, and tried hard to smile at him. "These are beautiful, Andros."

"Ashley." He took the earrings from her with his other hand and set them to the side, able to wrap both arms around her now. "Something's bothering you."

Ashley leaned against his chest, her head pillowed on his shoulder, and wondered how she could ever be unhappy. "Andros..."

"Talk to me." His voice was as gentle as she'd ever heard it, but she heard it as an order.

"Later." She shook her head when he started to protest, hugging his waist a little harder. "Please."

With a sigh, he gave in. Feeling the faintest hint of a smile on her lips when he began to rub slow circles in her back, Ashley just closed her eyes and appreciated the silent comfort. Andros kissed the side of her head, his warm breath on her ear sending shivers down her spine.

Ashley's smile widened some. Something had always been holding him back during the year he'd spent with her on Earth, something that slipped away a little more with each day she spent with him on KO-35. She didn't know quite what it was, but as each day passed he relaxed a little more.

She was almost positive that it was all of that long-buried guilt he'd carried with him and had just kept adding to. Now Karone and Zhane were both alive and well, his parents had arrived on a recent ship along with so many others, and the world Andros had hated himself for failing was steadily rebuilding. With fewer reasons to close himself off, he seemed more and more eager to let their relationship solidify into something stable and permanent, and Ashley couldn't deny that that wasn't exactly what she'd wanted for some time now.

It was why she'd left Earth to come back to KO-35 with him, and however much she felt out of place sometimes, Ashley didn't regret the decision. Her hopes that her future was with him were slowly being realized, and she wouldn't trade him for anything.

Not when they were so close to becoming a little more. She laid her hand against his chest, her fingers resting where she felt his heartbeat. It was a good thing she wasn't half as shy as he was, she decided as she recalled the startled look on his face when she'd first broached the subject. But she hadn't been able to stand it any longer--she wanted him and needed to know if he felt the same.

She hadn't really doubted that he did but there was just something about hearing it. Ashley pressed her lips together to keep from giggling as she remembered how hard he'd blushed. The important thing was that they were certain of how the other felt now.

"You're smiling again." Andros's voice was quiet in her ear as his fingers brushed hair out of her eyes. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." She squeezed him a little harder to reassure him. "Thanks. I was just feeling a little... not homesick, but... I don't know."

"You miss Earth."

"No," she said. "I don't. I miss my family and all the others, yeah, but I email them about ten times a day."

"But?" he prompted, and she sighed.

"I like it here, really I do," she said. "It's just that... it's so small that sometimes, it's just hard not to remember that I'm not from around here."

"Oh," he said softly, frowning. "But... why would you want to forget?"

"I don't." Ashley toyed idly with the button on his shirt as she searched for the right words to say. "It's just... hard, to feel like I belong here when I'm not from somewhere that's anything like this at all."

"Oh," he said again. "But you do belong here, Ash. With me," he added softly, his lips turning up into a small smile. "Just like I belong with you."

"I know." She smiled at his words, letting out a deep breath. "I know it's only been a month. I'll get used to it here."

"I know." His fingers brushed against her chin and she tilted her head back for a soft kiss. "Ashley?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you feel better if you had a party?"

"You don't do that here," she reminded him.

"That's not what I asked," he said. "You know you could make friends with half the colony in a few hours."

"Andros, you hate parties." She paused to think for a moment, then glanced back at him with a giggle. "But you do look awfully cute when you're dressed up."

"I don't have to be there," he said quickly, far too late to get himself out of it.

"Who else am I going to dance with?" she demanded, wrapping both of her arms around his neck.

"Speaking of dancing..." Andros shrugged at the look she shot him. "I'm taking you offplanet for dinner, dancing, and a holoshow."

"Now?"

"If you want to go now," he said in a tone that made it clear he rather hoped she didn't. "Whenever you want."

"This weekend sometime," she said, laying her head down on his shoulder. She wasn't in the mood to do anything but cuddle up with him on the couch. "You're really sweet, Andros."

He smiled when she kissed his neck, lightly touching his lips to her nose. "I want you to be happy."

"I know." She tucked her head against the crook of his neck, one arm wrapped around his neck and the other draped across his chest. Both of his arms were around her still, holding her close as she snuggled up against him comfortably. "I am happy."

* * *

**Happy birthday, Nicole. **Love ya, and I hope you have a great day. :) I hope the rest of you enjoyed the story, let me know what you think!  



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